Sunday, December 22, 2013

We're coming over the hump of the Great Iqaluit Christmas Exodus. It's been a steady stream the past week, but it always peaks on Friday and Saturday, when school closes. Also, some organizations in town close for Christmas break. That makes the airport an absolute gong show. I'm guessing at least 300 people flew from Iqaluit to Ottawa on Friday. I understand that doesn't sound like much, but when you consider the size of the airport, I'm pretty sure there were some fire and safety regulations being studiously ignore yesterday. There's no way it's legal to have as many people in the "holding pen" past security at the airport as they do, yet nothing is ever done about it.

That doesn't include many Inuit taking flight from Iqaluit to head to their home communities for the holidays. That went on Friday, I'm sure. Don't get me wrong, it would be lovely to go somewhere for Christmas, either home or some place warm. It's been close to six months since I was last out of Iqaluit and I'm starting to get a bit itchy to go somewhere. But man, am I ever glad I wasn't dealing with travel hassles the last few days.

And they were all over the place. I heard the second First Air flight that was supposed to arrive around 5 pm went mechanical. Because that meant 100 people would be stranded at one of the busiest times of the year, some scrambling happened to get another plane to fill-in. I also heard the Yellowknife-Rankin-Iqaluit flight bypassed Rankin, which I'm sure caused all kinds of additional chaos. All of this before you even got down south and had to deal with the weather and almost certain delays.

Gah.

With all of that travel madness going on, Cathy and I are gearing up for a nice, quiet Christmas at home. I suspect on Christmas Day and Boxing Day the only time we will change out of lounge wear is when the dog guilts us into taking him for his three minute walk. There's still prep work that goes into that level of sloth, however.

A couple of days ago we got our turkeys. Now, down south you would probably go to the supermarket, buy a turkey. I heard they were going for 99 cents a kilo, I believe. They were going for around $6/kilo up here (or that might have been a pound. Not sure. Scary number regardless). So we were waiting for the turkey truck, which finally appeared on Wednesday.

The turkey truck is a grand Iqaluit tradition that goes like this. A cube truck filled with frozen turkeys parks in front of either the NorthMart or the gas bar. Turkeys are $25 for a small one, $30 for a large one. Pay the money, walk away with a turkey. And it's a perfectly fine turkey. Maybe not a Butterball or anything, but it'll taste fine on Christmas day.

We've also been finished our Christmas shopping. I think the last of her stuff from me arrived on Tuesday. The last of my stuff for her arrived on Friday. That's not to say there aren't dangers still lurking in town. Iqaluit Sell/Swap and Iqaluit Auction Bids is going to be the death of us one of these days. Cathy spotted a nice sealskin item earlier the week that had us knocking on the door of someone's house at 8:30 in the morning. Today it was going to Matthew Nugingaq's studio, where he was having a sale on his jewelry. One pair of raven earrings for Cathy and an igloo ring for me later...

Did I mention some local artists and photographers are having a sale on Sunday? We're a menace, swear to god...

But the kicker was the post office on Saturday. They've been opening on Saturdays the last month to try and clear out some of the backlog. I've gone a couple of Saturdays and the line has only been a couple of people. I figured the same thing would happen today, especially with so many people leaving town. Oh no. Oh god no. It was the longest line I'd ever seen at the post office. And they only had one poor guy on the counter. I counted 40 people in line once. It took us one hour and 15 minutes to get our package (which was not the one we were waiting for).

But it oddly wasn't too bad. Nobody was grumbling and most people were chatting with their neighbour and were in good spirits. No one was blaming Mathieu (the poor man at the counter) who everyone in town likes and we could see he was going as fast as he could. I went out to get some coffee and, on the spur of the moment, bought a 40 pack of timbits and left them on a bench so people in line. Which seemed to cheer people up.

It's not bad being in Iqaluit over Christmas. There's a nice vibe in the air over the two weeks when a lot of people are gone. It's just friendlier and more relaxed. I'm looking forward to it.

That and we're now past Winter Solstice. It means the days are getting longer again. It's a small thing, but I do enjoy the slow climb back towards the light, rather than the slow drift into the dark that we've been doing the past six months. Here's to more sunlight, no matter how small, at the darkest time of the year...

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

I was speaking to someone today who told me "Nunavummiut always have the best reasons to be sent home from work." Which is true. I mean, yes, we have pedestrian reasons like a blizzard, but our blizzards are widely mocked as being wussy by other Nunavumiut (people in the Kivalliq are bizarrely proud of their five day blizzards) and are hardly worth closing over. However, there are other, slightly more weird ones you might not find down south. These are some of the reasons that Cathy and I have been sent home during our time up here:

1. A guy wandering around the post office with a rifle that shut down part of the city.
2. A dump fire that caused a toxic cloud of smoke around Iqaluit. Not entirely sure what good it did leaving one part of town to go home to the other part that still had smoke around it, but there you go.
3. Polar bear.
4. Computer failure.
5. Massive satellite failure which knocked out all telecommunications across Nunavut.
6. Frozen water pipes, knocking out water to the building.
7. Water main break, which caused massive flooding, which then promptly froze.
8. City-wide multi-day power failure.
9. Mold
10. Temperatures with wind chill below -50C (that one is Cathy's. The non-teacher adults still have to go to work).
11. Someone cracking open all the fire extinguishers and spraying them around the building.

There might be more, but I think that's a pretty good start. Can anyone else think of a reason why their office/business might have closed in recent years?

Friday, December 13, 2013

When it was announced earlier the year that a Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel was being formed to look into the feasibility of creating a law school at MUN, I resisted the urge to rant. I think Ed Hollett did a fairly effective evisceration of the idea’s stupidity. Now the panel has come out and is recommending a law school be created for the university. With appendixes it's a whopping 32 pages. I'll wait while you read it. Oh, and here are The Telegram and CBC stories.

Newfoundland’s motto is “Quaerite prime regnum dei” which is “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”. It really ought to be Home of Smart People doing Stupid Things (like picking awful mottos. That’s just terrible). A law school for MUN is a terrible idea. It’s obvious to just about everyone except, of course, Blue Ribbon Advisory Panels. A panel, by the way, that was so smart and dedicated to the task at hand, that they did their public consultation during the summer, which resulted in low turnouts. If memory serves, about a dozen people showed up in Corner Brook and they seemed mostly interested in any potential school being set up in the legal hotbed that is Corner Brook. Numbers were even lower in other places. Clearly they did their best to dissuade any notion that the fix was in for this report. That and produce a report that could, generously, be described as "fluffy". When you're quoting the notoriously easily rigged VOCM and Telegram online polls to support your argument, you're on some mighty thin ice.

You want to know how to save money on a Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel? Use Google. Now Google “law school graduate problems”. Now, that gets you 304,000,000 results, so it might take you awhile to go through that, but I think it’s clear there might be some issues out there for grads. But allow me to sum up – there are way too many law schools, pumping out way to many graduates, who have been deceived by institutions into thinking this a boom profession, with high pay and lots of opportunities. They're also drowning in student aid debt.

The reality is that unless you’re in a top law school (ie. Been around for decades. Lots of decades) and graduate at the top of your class, law is a bitch of a profession. Dubious job prospects, used as slave labour for years, long hours and, as a friend of mine in the profession quipped earlier the year, “you don’t retired from law, you just die.” Not to mention that since law schools charge more for tuition, so that unemployed, or under-employed, graduates are often stuck with staggering student loan debts.

There is the reality of law school, and then there is the myth. The Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel seems to subscribe to the myth. There is no demand for lawyers in Canada. If there’s only been three law schools opened since 1975, that’s possibly because there’s already too many law grads being thrown into the fire.

Rather than Google, how about an article on articling, from that well-know radical, nut job publication “The Lawyers Weekly.” Second paragraph:

Fresh-faced grads are finding it harder than ever to land an articling job after law school. While law schools continue to accept a steady number of students, the job market does not have an abundance of articling positions for those eager to start their legal careers, they say.

So yes, clearly another 80 graduates a year will make this problem go away.

Also, the mention of an increase in “civic engagement” due to the miracle of a new law school is such a piece of spin doctor bullshit (I should know, trust me. And hey, look, the panelists had a communications advisor to help them. That's thoughtful), I’d be surprised if the panelists weren’t blushing when they wrote it.

I recall another conversation with the same lawyer friend of mine. This school presupposes that local firms would hire local students. Not necessarily. First, they’re going to hire students from schools that have good reputations. Going to take a few decades for that to happen here. Secondly, which I found interesting, all skills being equal, senior partners tend to show bias towards lawyers who graduated from the same school they did and not their province of birth.

Again, might take a few decades for that to happen.

But hey, in the meantime, MUN could spend millions developing a law school, that isn’t needed, trick students into spending a fortune on tuition and student loans - it’ll probably be in the ball park of what med students pay - for jobs that will be much harder to come by than they think for law firms that really don’t need or want them.

Really, MUN already has a program for flooding an over-saturated job market with nearly unemployable grads. It's called the education faculty. Does it also need also a law school?

Yes, forward thinkers, those Blue Ribbon Advisory Panelists. I can’t wait to see their plans for a MUN School of Journalism.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

So you know a geek and would like to buy them something. Speaking as a life-long geek, I understand that this can be a challenge. There is, in fact, so much cool geek stuff out there that it’s almost impossible to sort through. And you have to be careful. Getting Star Trek stuff for a My Little Pony geek isn’t really going to work out too well for you. A for effort, C for results.

I always tend to lean towards comic books. Big surprise. You can rarely go wrong with them. It’s a good story and pretty art in a nice little book. And most of them are reasonably priced, except for the ones that are not. And really, unless you really love them, you’re not buying them too many $100 books.

So here are a few of my suggestions for comics that you might want to buy this Christmas season. For the most part these are self-contained reading. I mean, Wolverine and the X-Men, Vol. 7 was a lovely book and all, but unless the person you’re buying for has the other six, it’s a bit of a wasted effort.

Book of the Year

East of West: Vol. 1 – The Promise

There’s no series I’ve gone back and reread more this year. I love Jonathan Hickman’s writing because it’s ambitious as hell, and he’s setting up for stuff that’s not going to pay off for a couple of years. But when it does, you can almost always guaranteed to be spectacular.

Put it this way, he recently completed a run on the Fantastic Four that I consider one of the five best in that series 50 year history. He had an inter-dimensional Council of Reed Richards, alien invasions from space and another dimension, Dr. Doom, battling space gods, time travel, a major death, and a dozen other things. And after two and a half years of this glorious madness, it was all build up to three pages of writing, so personal, human and beautifully written that I got misty. (Vol. 1 of the Omnibus of that Fantastic Four run is also now out, and well worth picking up, but it is expensive.)

All the first volume of East of West gives you as an alternate future on an Earth where the U.S. Civil War ended very differently, where three of the four horseman of the Apocalypse are on the ride and what the fourth horseman is up to is strange business indeed. It’s a sci-fi apocalyptic western. It’s also a love story. It also has some brutal, yet beautiful bits of writing (Death gets all the best lines). I have no earthly idea where Hickman and artist Nick Dragotta (doing career best work) are going with this, but I’m along for the ride. As long as I can have a horse like the one Death rides, because that is a pretty awesome horse.

For Women:

It sounds a touch derogatory to specifically list comics for women. But women geeks are starting to come into their own serious power in 2013. Here are some of their favourites, and ones that I’ve read.

Captain Marvel fans are a hardcore group. They’ve dubbed themselves the Carol Corps, you can buy t-shirts online, they make their own costumes and crafts, and they’re some of the most active tumblr users in comics. Writer Kelly Sue DeCormick is one of the most accessible, and kind, comic book writers on social media.

Honestly, the books shows more potential for awesome then consistently hitting it. When it’s on, it’s funny, inspirational and kick-ass. But just as often it can be frustrating. I think starting the series with a time travel story was a bit of a mistake. And the art has been maddeningly inconsistent. But still, it is beloved and I think Kelly Sue is really starting to find her groove. It’s a solid super hero comic on the verge of becoming something really good.

Young Avengers: Vol. 1 – Style < Substance

Teen super hero team books are an old comic book tradition. X-Men were the first, I believe. Teen Titans followed shortly afterwards. But the thing is, they haven’t always been written as teens. They felt like adults. I mean, I loved Teen Titans growing up, but they never acted like they were 18.

This title does. The opening scene features Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) waking up in bed after hooking up with a guy the night before. A guy with a space ship. Then they’re promptly attacked by Skrulls. It feels a lot more like being 18 years old, passionate and deeply stupid about stuff (I assume you weren’t attacked by Skrulls at 18, however). The make mistakes, but do their best. They are also not all white and straight, which is nice. Oh, and there is Loki. A little Loki. It makes him no less dangerous. This is also Tumblr’s favourite comic book. People on Tumblr adore this series.

Also, the art by Jamie McKelvie is spectacular. Aside from being lovely to look at, there’s also a lot of unique lay-out and design work happening. Years from now, people are going to be looking back on Young Avengers and copying what they did here.

The Adventures of Superhero Girl

Honestly, you can buy anything that Faith Erin Hicks does (Friends with Boys and Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong are also worth picking up) and you’re in safe hands. She works out of Halifax and this is a fun series of strips featuring the adventures of Superhero Girl, as she tries to do right, keep a secret identity and put up with her insufferable, and much more popular, older hero brother. Delightful sounds condescending, but it’s a spot on accurate description of the book.

Bandette: Vol. 1 – Presto!

Anything Colleen Coover draws is pretty much is assured to end up on my buy list. I just love her art. It’s more cartoonish, but is filled with such energy and joy that makes it impossible to resist. Paul Tobin (who wrote the entertaining super-hero novel “Prepare to Die!”) helps out with the co-writing. The story is about a young woman who is both an art thief and someone who helps the police foil particularly nasty criminals. Well, her and her gang of street urchins.

Just a fun little piece of escapism. I’m not sure you’ll find a more joyful comic book this year.

Money to Burn

Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1

This is oh so pretty. It collects Uncanny X-Men from Giant-Size Annual #1 to #129 (about 37 issues). If you ever wonder how the X-Men, and Wolverine, got so popular, this is the book for you. From the slightly clunky relaunch and first year’s worth of issues (the series was bi-monthly to start with. Sales of 250,000 copies a month didn’t warrant a monthly. Most publishers today would murder their family for a series with those numbers today) the series hits full speed when Canadian artist/co-writer John Byrne comes aboard. Also, fun fact, fans loathed Wolverine on the team for years and begged writers to kill him off. Which goes to show you should not always listen to fans.

It’s expensive, but the stories still hold up, the art is gorgeous and it has been recoloured. Also, the original issues are a fortune. A great book for the X-Men/Wolverine fan in your life.

The Animal Man Omnibus

Originally this was going to be a four-issue mini-series. Animal Man was a joke character and DC wasn’t expecting much. Except Scottish writer Grant Morrison hit it out of the park. One of the definitive series of the late 80s/early 90s, Morrison rewrote his origins, added a logical animal rights angle to the story and, towards the end, so completely fucked around with the story telling that you were genuinely shocked and touched with what he pulled off in the last few issues.

It’s also worth mentioning that the classic “The Coyote Gospel” issue will change the way you look at Looney Tunes cartoons forever.

Sandman Omnibus, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Really, really not cheap. DC manages to find new ways to repackage Sandman every few years. This is the latest, with the complete series in two hefty volumes. Forests have been slaughtered writing about the greatness of Neil Gaiman’s series. It’s on any shortlist of the greatest comic books ever written. These are beautiful looking, but heavy, books. I actually prefer to Absolute editions of the books, but they’re even more expensive to buy. Still, it’s a fantastic series and a classic.

Mature

Comics aren’t for kids anymore is the refrain that was popular in the mid-80s. So here are a few that are not quite for the kids.

Stumptown: Vol. 1 - The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her Mini)Stumptown: Vol. 2 - The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case

Greg Rucka remains one of my favourite writers. Along with Matthew Southworth and Rico Renzi on art, this is a great little pair of books set in Portland, Oregon featuring P.I. Dex Parios (Dex is the shortened version of her name. Her real name is one of the better jokes of the series). Dex, like any good P.I., is pretty deeply screwed up. Good heart and smart, but a real gift for getting in trouble and making bad decisions. The first book is a bit darker than the second, and honestly, I prefer Vol. 2., but they’re both clever and well written.

Also, a note about the hardcover design. These are seriously nice looking books, with lots of extras. Credit to Oni Press for putting together a really nice looking book at a very reasonable price.

RASL

It’s weird sounding title, and short for Romance at the Speed of Light. It’s also written and illustrated by Jeff Smith. And if that names sounds familiar, he produced the beloved classic kids comic Bone. This is about as far away from Bone as you can get and still be a comic. RASL, our hero, drinks, swears, tends to have sex with women he shouldn’t (prostitutes and his lab partner’s wife) and is an art thief.

It’s a big book, there’s a lot crammed in there (comic books writers love Tesla these days) and not all of it works (the art thief angle really doesn’t), but it’s beautiful and Smith is playing with a lot of stuff here, including inter-dimensional travel, the nature of God, identity, government conspiracies, and a host of other things. It’s ambitious and even if he doesn’t 100% land it, it’s a hell of a pleasure watching him try. This is also another beautifully packaged hardcover, by the way.

The Black Beetle: Vol. 1 – No Way Out

I have no idea how Francesco Francavilla can be so prolific and this damn good. It feels like his art was everywhere in 2013 and it was exploding with energy and vibrancy all over the place. I think the phrase “sickeningly talented” might apply here.

He also writes “No Way Out” and if you’re a fan of 30s/40s pulp heroes, this is your book. The Shadow and the Green Hornet also had series out this year. None of them came close to the fun of this book, as our hero fights Nazis trying to grab an occult object and solve the murder of some gangsters who got blown up just as he was about to bring them to justice. And again, give credit to Dark Horse for putting together a gorgeous, and reasonably priced, hardcover of this bit of pulp fun.

Fatale: Vol. 1 - Death Chases MeFatale: Vol. 2 - The Devil's BusinessFatale: Vol. 3 - West of HellBreaking the multiple volume rule for two reasons. First, no one in the business is better at putting out reasonable priced trade paperbacks to lure in new readers than Image Comics (these volumes can be bought at Amazon for $11.50 each). Secondly, when Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips put something out, you buy the damn thing no matter what.

This is Ed Brubaker playing with multiple genres. It’s noir. Deep, dark noir, so it’s not ending well for a lot of people. But it’s also a Lovecraftian horror story about a seemingly immortal woman who has the ability to get men to do anything she wants, rarely with good results, and the mysterious cult that chases her throughout most of the 20th century.

Brubaker and Phillips are hopscotching across the decades in a non-linear bit of storytelling that is so good you would think anyone could do this, but almost no one other than these two can do it so well and effortlessly.

Saga: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples put together the critical darling of the moment. This series is beloved and wins awards everywhere. Basically, two star-crossed lovers (literally) from warring galactic cultures fall in love and then, because neither one of them are particularly bright, manage to have a kid. This so infuriates both of their respective cultures that assassins are sent to remedy the situation.

This is a grotesquely simple description to a fun, sexy and touching series. Vaughn isn’t trying to sugar coat stuff here. The first issue got some blowback because it features a character breast feeding. There is sex. There is weird culture stuff happening. There is a Lying Cat, which can tell when you’re lying and says so loudly, which makes it the most beloved, and annoying, character in the series.

Vaughn and Staples are going balls to the wall crazy on this, but it’s fun stuff and worth the ride. And again, Image Comics makes the books ridiculously cheap, at $11.50 each.

Super-Heroes

Oh right, the stuff most people like. Well, um…

The Avengers: Endless Wartime

An original graphic novel from Marvel, written by Warren Ellis (my favourite writer) and illustrated by Mike McKone, this is the book for people who loved the movie, but we’re too daunted by the hundred million Avengers books out there right now to know where to start.

Basically, an old threat from Captain America and Thor’s past drives the rest of the team (Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, the Hulk) into action. The strength of the book is the easy way Ellis introduces each of the characters and how they interact with each other (everybody thinks Tony Stark is a dick and takes turns threatening him: "Tony, I could shoot you out of the air right now and all that would happen is I'd get a medal" - Captain Marvel). Everyone has a big moment, but the quiet moments of characters talking are the best ones.

It’s a solid little book, but a touch disappointing, if I’m honest. I don’t think Ellis landed the ending, which is rare. And McKone’s art is fine, but the action scenes never worked 100% for me. But it’s still a solid read and enjoyable.

Hawkeye: Vol. 1 - My Life as a WeaponHawkeye: Vol. 2 - Little HitsI should mention you can also buy these two books in one, over-sized hardcover. This is Marvel’s critical darling book of the moment, with Matt Fraction and David Aja (and some guest artists), knocking it out of the park. I mean, it’s Hawkeye. He’s a guy that shoots arrows. How cool can this be?

Really cool. Extraordinarily cool. As the pitch goes, this is what he does when he’s not an Avenger. Which means he tends to get beaten up a lot, make a lot of mistakes, try his best, and sometimes come out ahead. There’s also Russian mobsters who say “bro” a lot, Kate Bishop, who is also Hawkeye, and Pizza Dog. Who is a dog that likes pizza. And sometimes solves murders.

It absolutely shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does. Aja’s spectacular art and creative layout certainly helps. But Hawkeye is such a loveable idiot in this book (bad habit of sleeping with the wrong women) you can’t help but to along with whatever stupid thing he’s doing now.

I was really prepared to hate this book, simply because I loved the previous Batgirl series by Brian Miller. And seriously, if you can find Miller’s run (it’s pretty much out of print), buy it. It’s one of the most entertaining series of the last 15 years.

But this is written by Gail Simone. And she managed the miraculous feat of bringing Barbara Gordon back as Batgirl, after she’s spent the last 20 years as the beloved, and wheel-chair bound, Oracle. A lot of fans hated this move, as positive role-models for disabled people are rare beasts in comics.

But Simone is doing some interesting things here. She’s taking advantage of a publisher wide revamp of the entire DC line. That revamp has been a massive failure, in my opinion, with a few exceptions. Here is one of them. For one thing, Gordon is dealing with PTSD, which means she’s got a lot of rage issues and doesn’t always do the smart thing. Simone is also looking at mental illness, in particular with some of the villains. There are other tweaks as well. Batgirl doesn’t feel comfortable going after poor people doing bad things to try survive like robbing from the rich. And there’s a nice, diverse supporting cast.

I miss Miller’s Batgirl a lot, but if you had to replace it with something, this is as good as you’re going to get.

Batman: Vol. 1 - The Court of OwlsBatman: Vol. 2 - The City of OwlsBatman: Vol. 3 - Death of the FamilyLord knows that DC is flogging the Bat titles to death. I think there are about a dozen Bat related titles right now. But along with Batgirl, this is the cream of the crop. Writer Scott Snyder is DC's go to guy for writing these days, and artist Greg Capullo is doing career best work. The first two books are one big story arc and the rare attempt at going back through Batman's origins that really quite works. A sinister, secret organization that has laid in the heart of Gotham for more than a century, that has intimate ties with the Wayne family. It's a nice place on owls and bats, a good new set of villains for Batman. He's a character that's as much defined by his foes as himself, so a new, high calibre villains is no easy trick.As for Death of the Family, it's Snyder's attempt at the ultimate Joker/Batman story. It has its moments, and introduces a very weird new dynamic between the two. I think he wrote himself into a corner for the ending (he simply couldn't do what he wanted to do, because it would have damaged too many of DC's characters), but it's one of the scarier Joker stories I can recall.

Others

Star Wars: Vol. 1 – In the Shadow of Yavin

I’ve never bothered with Star Wars comics too much, because publisher Dark Horse cranks out so many that it’s impossible to keep up with it. This book, however, has several things going for it. Brian Wood is a top notch, if controversial, writer (accusations of bad behavior towards women at cons). I’ve been hit and miss on his work before, but this is a solid hit. The series takes place shortly after the events of “A New Hope”. The rebels are on the run and trying to find a new base, but the Empire is right on top of them. It’s up to Princess Leia to try and save the rebellion, which is hanging on by a thread.

Seriously, this book is great because of Leia. She’s barely recovering from losing Alderann and being tortured, dealing with spies, a pouty Luke Skywalker and trying to keep the rebellion together. But through all of it, she’s kick-ass tough and smart. I’ve never read or seen a better portrayal of Leia.

And yes, Vader is in it, smarting from losing the Death Star and looking to get some revenge. Han and Chewie are there too, proving that they're the worst smugglers in the galaxy.

Oh yes, and the art is great. Trying to draw actors in comics has a long history of failure. They often look either very stiff or not like the actors. Carlos D'anda manages to pull off the rare trick of it looking natural, but also with a nice gift for the big action sequences.Conan: Vol. 13 - Queen of the Black CoastAgain, breaking a rule, but you can easily skip the previous 12 volumes and not be confused. A young Conan makes his way to a boat with the local police hot on his trail. Shortly afterwards there are pirates and tales of high adventure. Oh, and a pirate queen not to be messed with.Conan is way hit and miss with me, and more often miss. A little goes a long way. But with writer Brian Wood (him again) and art by the amazingBecky Cloonan and quite good James Harren, this is a fun little tale.Molly Danger: Book 1

An early Kickstarter success story, this is for people who missed out on getting the book through the original fundraising effort. Written and illustrated by Jamal Igle it features the adventures of Molly Danger, a 12-year-old girl with super powers. Except she's been 12 for several decades now, has an origin that sounds decidedly suspicious and a support team to help her with adventures, but doesn't seem to do much to actually make her happy.

If it sounds like a downer, well, a bit of one. But it's a super hero book aimed at kids (there's a rarity) and Igle is setting up a lot of stuff in this volume for future ones. But it's beautifully drawn and the book itself was quite the surprise when it arrived. It's an over-sized book, which shows off the artwork quite nicely. I'm eagerly awaiting Book 2.

Well, that went on longer than I thought, but hopefully there's a few suggestions there that are useful. Enjoy your comics...

Last Five
1. I can't wait to get off work (and see my baby on Montgomery Avenue) - Tom Waits
2. The guitar - They Might Be Giants
3. Like a star - Corinne Bailey Rae*
4. Salute your solution - The Racounteurs
5. Keepsake - The Gaslight Anthem

Sunday, December 08, 2013

Christmas gong show season is in full effect down south, and Iqaluit is not exempt. Things will start getting crazier in town over the next week or so, then get weird during the mass exodus right after school ends, but then quietly and more intimately busy over the holidays.

So what do I mean by that?

Well, on Thursday there was a school choirs concert in town. Cathy and I missed that as she was working at the thrift shop and I continue my self-abuse/improvement at the gym. Friday night saw the annual Christmas ornament sale at Arctic College by the jewelry class. We've been going to that pretty much every year since we've been here. The first and second year students of the jewelry class make a bunch of northern influenced ornaments made of brass. Prices can go for $10 for a small, simple piece to $40 or $50 for a more intricate ornament.

When we first started going, the sale would start at 5 p.m. and you would show up 10 minutes beforehand, take a look at everyones ornaments, settle on a couple and that was that. I'd say over the years we've probably acquired about a dozen ornaments for ourselves and almost the same amount to give to other people as gifts. They're a nice local craft, and you get to support art students.

It's....escalated over the last few years. For example, Cathy went to line-up at 4:30 last year and was the third person in line. This year we showed up at 4:30 and we had about a dozen or more people in front of us. When 5 p.m. came around it was a free-for-all, with everyone pushing through to the table and grabbing pretty much anything they could find. The sale was essentially over by 5:05 p.m. We managed to grab a couple (one for us, one for a gift), but man, it's getting a little crazy at that sale. Good for the artists, who are making money, but you don't actually get to see much of their art. I only got to see what was on the table when comparing ornaments with others afterwards.

They might want to reconsider how they do things for next year. As I said, it's getting a bit crazy, all for the chance to grab one of, maybe, 50 ornaments.

The other big Christmas events were on Saturday, with the slightly screwed up combination of the major Christmas Craft Fair taking place at 11 a.m. and the Santa Claus parade starting at noon. To be fair, I think the parade had dibs, it's normally the first Saturday in December and the craft fair is normally a couple of weeks earlier. But it did make it a bit chaotic yesterday.

The craft sale is another level of madness. We showed up a good hour and 20 minutes before the doors opened and we were not at the front of the line. There was at least a dozen or more people there ahead of us. It's not at the point where people are going to start camping out for that craft sale, but it's starting to feel like it. It's one of your best chances to get local Christmas gifts, but it's also one of the main social events of the season. I won't say everyone in town goes, but a lot of the town shows up. So you're as much stopping as you are saying hi to people.

(Apologies for the blurry photos. Still getting use to the new iPhone. Note to self, remove Pro HDR from the list of camera apps to use.)

This was a pretty good year. Part of it was they opened up the second floor of the school to more table, which spread the crowd out a little more. Plus, the sale can be hit and miss. Some years there is a ton of really cool stuff. Other years, it feels like a lot of southern related junk is there. We pulled in a pretty good haul...um, mostly for ourselves. Well, we don't need to buy much for others. At least that's the excuse we're going with.

Then there was the Santa Claus parade. I suspect because of the competing craft fair, it was a touch disappointing this year. Not as many floats. But Santa was there, and there were still lots of people marching along the parade route, waving and filled with some Christmas cheer.

School concerts will be coming up next week and then once school ends, the exodus begins. I'd say about a third of Iqaluit will leave for Christmas. A lot go south, but also a lot of Inuit will go visit family in their home communities. Iqaluit become a much quieter place during Christmas. It's nice. We'll be here as we went back to Newfoundland last year. This year it's in town. Which will be nice. Something to be said to waking up Christmas morning in your own bed and then having to do nothing but laze around for the day because you don't have 100 family and friend commitments. It's quite relaxing...

Friday, November 29, 2013

I’ve been going to the gym for almost two years now. It’ll be two in February, but it’s close enough for this blog post’s purposes. According to the computer they use to keep track of my usage, that’s meant more than 300 trips the gym during that period of time. I also just paid for another year’s membership, so that number is only going to keep going up

I’m not putting that out there to look for applause, but to point out that I spend a decent part of my week at that place. I try very hard when I get to the gym to focus on the workout. It’s meant in the past that I’ve been exceptionally, and inadvertently, rude. I put my headphones on and just go. So people have said hello to me and I haven’t acknowledge them. That’s because I didn’t notice they were there. When I’m in the zone, which is where I try to be, nothing gets through. That’s a good thing. I’m not there to socialize; I’m there to do one specific thing and then go home.

Having said that, and because I’m a person who can still get easily annoyed, I can still notice things at the gym that pisses me off. The top thing tends to be the music. To say I have a healthy loathing of 95 per cent of EDM is an understatement. This is easily dealt with by simply putting in my headphone. The thing that annoys me is when people go to the soundsystem and crank it to the point where I have to put my iPod on blast to drown them out. When my hearing gives up the ghost in about 20 years time, I’ll probably trace it directly back to Atii Fitness.

Let’s put it this way, I already own two pairs of Bose headphones. I really don’t need those noise-cancelling earbuds they just released, but I am lusting over them.

There can be other things, but they’re minor and I know it. Barbies more interested in gossiping or posing than doing their workout. Gronks (male Barbies) doing the same thing, only grunting louder. There aren’t many, but it never takes much to get on my nerves a bit. Atii is actually pretty good, considering it’s a small gym with limited machines, weight and space. But considering I’m working out and grumpy, it’s not a surprise that my annoyance level is pretty easy to trip.

But on the weekend I saw something that actually made me question someone’s sanity. And I mean that very literally.

This past weekend was the first blast of winter for Iqaluit. Temperatures were in the -20C range, which is cold, but not ohmyjesus cold. The kicker was the wind, which was hitting 90 km/h, which meant the windchill settled in around a cozy -42C or so. We’ll deal with far colder than that before this winter is out, but it’s the first real taste of it this season, so there’s always an adjustment time.

So it’s bitter cold, extremely windy and while there isn’t much snow falling, what’s on the ground is blowing around, so there were a few whiteouts. Sunday was unpleasant, shall we say. That’s why I was astonished to notice a bike tied to the steps of the gym. Yes, someone biked to the gym in that weather.

I’m friends with one of the volunteers at the gym. He wasn’t sure who it belonged to, but confirmed he looked out his window earlier that day and saw someone biking up the road.

Look, if biking is your thing, good for you. I have a dear friend in Edinburgh who bikes everywhere and is a biking advocate. I think there comes a point, however, where you go “You know what, maybe I’ll leave the bike tied up today.” -42C windchill and 90 km/h winds with reduced visibility would be a little past that bar, I would think. My gym friend and I were discussing, quite seriously, if the person might not be mentally ill. I think you would have to be.

There was a time when I would simply go “Well, there’s a Darwin Award waiting to happen.” But I think I’ve changed as I’ve gotten older. It’s not just about making a choice that I think, sincerely, is a sign there’s something wrong with you. It’s also about the consequences when this inevitably goes wrong. When s/he gets hit by a car in a whiteout. Or hits a patch of ice and goes flying. Or gets frostbite or worse. It’s the trauma the people having to deal with your mistakes go through. It’s what your family and friends will go through.

I hope someone talk to that person and tells them they really need to think twice about that choice. Because they’re going to get hurt. I have no doubt about that.

Saturday, November 09, 2013

It's been consistently cold the last week or so in Iqaluit. You get a choice when you live up here...you can have it relatively warmer, but it's going to be cloudy or you can have bright sunshine that your body is craving, but considerably colder. You're not getting sunshine and warmth at this time of the year.

Earlier the week the last sealift boat made its escape from Iqaluit. I'm surprised it took as long as it did. For days it seemed like it was just hanging around out there, doing nothing. I can't imagine sitting on a sealift boat when it's -27C windchill, which we had last week, was particularly fun. I figured that was the last boat of the year.

Except yesterday the coast guard made a reappearance. Again, not really sure what she's doing out there. I guess it's possible another sealift boat is coming, or perhaps a fuel boat. But it's getting awfully late in the year. There are great clouds of mist coming off the bay today. The air is considerably colder than the water, and you can see the bay is starting to freeze up. You won't be hopping out there on a ski-doo for several more weeks, but it's beginning. People around town are anxious for it to happen. It's too cold to go boating now, so they want the bay to freeze so they can go ski-dooing.

The light was nice this morning, so I grabbed a couple of pics; one in colour and a slightly spookier one in black and white.

And just because it's been awhile, I figured you should get an update on Boo. As you can tell, it's a hard life being a little dog. He's resting up in preparation for his next defence of the house from the evil duo of The Water Truck and The Sewage Truck. It's a never-ending battle...trust me.

I've also discovered in recent weeks that there is a third Coton de Tulear in Iqaluit. I knew there was at least one other because the family came down to meet Boo before deciding if they were going to take the plunge (Coton's are not cheap). This lady got her dog (named Chiquita), from a different breder...one in Saskatchewan. Still, it's nice to know there are three Cotons in town, even if Boo wanted absolutely nothing to do with her when they met on the street. I joked we needed to start a Coton Club in town. Alas, the joke seems to go right over everyone's head. Anyway...

I always kind of regret how unsociable he is with other dogs. It's a consequence of when we lived "downtown" and there were so many strays - many of them not nice - so that we were constantly yanking him away from other dogs when they met on the road. It's too late to do anything about it now (something about old dogs and new tricks, I believe), but if that's the worse we can say about him, then I think we got off all right.

Well, Cathy's not fond of his habit of whining at 4 am to get up on the bed, even though he's perfectly capable to jumping up there himself. So I guess we can find a few bad things, but really, he's an awfully good dog. I regret that with the colder weather coming in his walks are about to get a lot shorter. Even with a proper coat on, we can't have him out as long. His feet get too cold. And yes, we know we can buy boots, but the little bugger is a Houdini in getting them off his feet. We've probably lost $100 worth of those things.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

So, Nunavut's election is on Monday and today was an all afternoon affair at the Francophone Centre. A little last minute scrambling by some dedicated volunteers led to a unique event - candidates from all four Iqaluit ridings had a brief, well, debate isn't the right word. It was a question and answer session, to be more accurate. A forum. Each riding got 90 minutes with the candidates. Questions were sent in and drawn at random and asked to the candidates.

I'm going to say a few words, which I assume I'm allowed to do. I have some empathy for Elections Nunavut during this voting cycle. They're being stuck enforcing some truly bizarre rules. The latest one is that all candidates must remove all social media presence by tomorrow. That means candidates are not allowed to have websites up, active Twitter accounts or any kind of group on Facebook. Why? It violates the rules passed in the recent Nunavut elections act. I'm sure there is logic to it, just none that I can see. So for all I know someone from Elections Nunavut might tell me to take this down in a few hours. I don't know if I might not get in trouble if I Tweet something about the election in the next 48 hours.

I assume whoever gets elected on Monday might want to look at going back and tweaking some aspects of that act.

So, onwards to the latest events.

1. In the end, five of the six candidates came to our doorstep. I spoke with four of them. The only one who didn't show up was Sytukie Joamie, who said he wasn't going to do any campaigning of any kind. Which is his right, I just won't be voting for him. It's easy to crap on people who want to get involved in politics, but I found the candidates I spoke with to be intelligent, knowledgeable about the issues and possessing a genuine desire to try and help. So I applaud them for getting involved and working hard to convince people to vote for them over the past month.

2. Also, got to say, it's refreshing not to be dealing with party platforms. Each candidate has issues they believe passionately in. There's considerable overlap, but there's no party platform trying to be adapted to a specific riding. There was no crapping on an opposing party. This is what each person believes in. You can like it or not, but at least you know what you're getting. A person, not a plank.

3. A friend of mine commented on Twitter that the nice thing about the Nunavut election is the lack of polling. Absolutely right. I have no idea how things are going to turn out on Monday. I have no idea how three of the four seats in Iqaluit are going to go, including ours. I'll be up late on Monday getting the results. I'm looking forward to it.

4. As for the event today, there's a lot to commend to the volunteers who put together a great event in a short period of time. It was well organized, there was simultaneous translation available in English, Inuktitut and French. It was broadcast on radio and they had dedicated people Tweeting out the questions and the candidates responses. Voters from all four ridings got to see their candidate speak on the issues at four different times. A remarkable job.

I put that out there so as to not distract from my two complaints. First, it wasn't a debate. Candidates were asked four questions, they all got a chance to answer. There was no debate or interaction. For our riding, the candidates were all very polite to each other. Which is grand and nice to see, but it also would have been nice to see them debate their differences in opinion with each other.

Secondly, I wish they had done a better job with the questions. They took them from the general public and drew them at random from a box. Not all questions are equal. The questions asked of the candidates in Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu were, at best, meandering and at worst completely irrelevant (one was on snowmobile safety in Iqaluit. It's a municipal issue). I wish they had done a better job of screening out weak questions or picked a different way to quiz the candidates. They should have just gotten Nunatsiaq News editor Jim Bell to ask questions.

So having said that, how did they do today? Well, I caution this is just my opinion. I also caution this is not an indication of how I'm voting or who I am supporting. I'm weighing factors other than four not great questions asked over the space of an hour. Having said that, this is my ranking.

1. Anne Crawford - She's the one who seemed the most comfortable with the format. She was the most concise with her answers and used her time the most efficiently. She spoke English, French, and Inuktitut. She also raised good points and offered up some interesting ideas. She did a good job.

The nitpicks. I'm not sure how many Inuit she wowed starting off her opening remarks in French. Also, while she speaks Inuktitut, I'm not sure how comfortable she was with it except for prepared remarks. A question about encouraging the use of Inuktitut was tailor-made to be answered in Inuktitut; she responded in English.

2. Jack Anawak. He offered up the best and more forceful opening remarks on what he wants to get accomplished. He also raised interesting points about the Inuktitut language and the need for greater training for Inuit, pointing out that mentoring programs are worse now than what they were in the 80s. He was well-spoken and is obviously passionate about issues as they relate to mental health. He's the one who moved up the highest in my regard after the candidates spoke.

The nitpicks. Not always the best at managing his time when talking. He ran out of time during his opening remarks. Also, I think he was trying a bit too hard sometimes to try and tie answers back to the issue of mental health.

3. Duncan Cunningham. A solid opening statement and he also tried to work all three languages in. He's obviously got a ton of experience and some good ideas. No one real shining moment during the meeting, though.

He wasn't so great at answering the questions in the time allowed. He seemed to get nervous and flustered and never looked 100 per cent at ease on the stage. He also wasn't 100 per cent comfortable using Inuktitut, except in prepared remarks. He's someone I get the feeling is much better at the policy and nuts and bolts of being in the office than in the campaigning to get the job.

4. Pat Angnakak. Oh, I confess this was a disappointment. I really quite liked her when she came to the door. Bright, engaging, well-spoken and lots of ideas. But the format clearly unnerved her. She never really had her composure until towards the end. She was nervous when talking and never got the clarity I think she was looking for when trying to answer questions.

She has one really quite good moment when talking about teacher/parent engagement, relating her own experience and also with her frustration that getting kids involved in school should be a community-wide effort (fair point, why do local businesses let kids into their establishments when they should be in class). I think she's better than she showed today, but it's bad timing to have an off day.

5. Sytukie Joamie. I think it's almost unfair to rate him 5th, simply because he's doing his own thing. He's the least polished politically of the six. That means sometimes he says stuff that leaves you scratching your head (making Nunavut into a province), but he also says stuff that is quite insightful. His reminder that Nunavut has a lot of positive things and is a good place was a needed, and refreshing, reminder that not everything is broken with Nunavut. In a discussion that so often focus on what's wrong and how to fix it, it was nice to hear.

6. Methusalah Kunuk. I didn't know much about him going into this forum and I still don't know much about him. It was not a great performance. He has a ton of experience in Government of Nunavut, but none of that was convincingly related when he spoke. He doesn't have a clear speaking voice in either language and not helping is that he never really seemed to clearly relay his ideas and what he stands for. You can scoff at some of Joamie's ideas, but at least they will get you talking. Nothing Kunuk said made an impression.

So there we have it. Crawford said it's too bad all of them couldn't win. And honestly, it's a pretty good field to pick from. No predictions on my part, and I'm not saying who Cathy and I are voting for. But Monday should be interesting. Best of luck to all of them

Monday, October 21, 2013

I haven't written anything about it, but Nunavut is in the middle of a territorial election. Old habits die hard, I guess. This is the second one we've been in Nunavut for. The last one was in 2008 and I was an employee of the Government of Nunavut, which meant I didn't feel comfortable writing about it.

Why? Well, I have a long-standing rule about blogging which is never write about work. It's begging, absolutely begging, for trouble. Now, I should be able to write about an election and the people running for the office when an employee for the GN. Reality was a little different. Social media, like blogger, Twitter or Facebook was something the GN was struggling to deal with. So, when in doubt with a new media, organizations like that tend to react in a hostile manner. I'm sure if I dug through the archives, I can find blog posts writing about bloggers being told to delete posts, or their blogs, if they wanted to keep their jobs.

You can debate if that's right. It was the reality. I understand the GN has a social media policy in place these days. I haven't read it, but hopefully it's a touch more...enlightened.

I don't work for the GN anymore, so I'm feeling a touch more liberated talking about the election. I'm not endorsing anyone because we're not sure who we're voting for yet. But I do love that it's going on. I'm a political animal. I was paying attention to the municipal elections in Newfoundland, so watching the territorial ones is fun stuff for me.

First, Nunavut elections are different. There are no political parties, which I find refreshing. I could explain how Nunavut's political system works, but I doubt I could do it better than Jim Bell did last month in the pages of Nunatsiaq News. Go here to read his explanation.

As for us, we're in the riding of Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu. Here's CBC's riding profile. Nunatsiaq has a bunch of stories about different candidates running in our riding, but I honestly don't have it in me to go and link to each one of them. It's a bit weird as at six candidates I think we have the most running of any one riding in the territory. Also, none of the candidates ran in the last territorial election, which makes us unique in the ridings in town. There's no incumbent to bump off.

I've had a rule about the election, which has baffled a few people when I tell it to them. It's a simple one: if the candidate does not knock on my door he or she is automatically excluded from being in the running for our vote. I don't have to be here. If I'm out, well, they can't be blame for that (although I could make the case that a professional campaign would note that and make the effort to come back before election day).

For me, this is simple. It's a small riding. I'm going to use some simple, and not 100 per cent accurate math, but it'll be close enough for our purposes. If there are approximately 8,000 people in town, and we divide that by four, that means there are 2,000 people in each riding. And let's say at four people per residence (total guesswork) that means about 500 residences per riding. If you can't visit that many households in a month, you're not trying. It means you're making a minimal effort to convince me, or anyone else, to vote for you. And if you're doing that in an election, what kind of MLA are you going to be?

So far, four of the six candidates have been to our door. Sytukie Joamie has already said he's not going door-to-door, so he's out. Nor has Jack Anawak. Given that advance polls are now open, he's pushing his luck, but he still has a few more days to be in the running. Methusalak Kunuk came to the house Saturday morning, but we were out. He did leave a brochure.

That leaves three we've spoken to: Anne Crawford, Duncan Cunningham and Pat Angnakak. Cathy and I are still discussing where we're leaning. We like to try and vote as a block whenever possible, rather than vote split. Cathy's interested in educational issues, I tend to focus on infrastructure. That's not to say there aren't other important issues in the election: mental health, food security, housing, economic development and among others.

The thing I like to ask is "how?" Honestly, if you ever want to see a candidates eyes go momentarily wide, after they talk about what they want to do, ask how they're going to be able to accomplish that. I mean, I think a mental health/addictions rehabilitation facility in Nunavut is absolutely necessary. The question is where is the money going to come from to build it, staff it and run it each year. It's not as easy as waving your magic wand. People have wanted this for years. I note we still don't have one.

I will give one indication in which way we're leaning; unless we hear something extraordinary from one of the men, which hasn't happened yet, I'd like to see a woman get elected from our riding. I think there are going to be plenty of middle-age men from other ridings in Nunavut. It'd be nice to have a woman represent us. And both Crawford and Angnakak seem like intelligent women with ideas of what they want to once elected.

There's been some talk of a debate. Actually, for awhile today there had them scheduled for Thursday and Friday, but that seems to have been put on hold. I hope it happens. I'd like to go and see how they do in a public setting. There's still a week. Not much time, but I can always hope...

Monday, October 14, 2013

There were days, back when eBay first started, where I thought that website might be the death of me. I'm pretty eBay resistant these days. I think I might have bought about a half dozen things in the past couple of years. But in terms of new temptations, Kickstater is doing a pretty good job.

I think Kickstarter has lured me into supporting about a half dozen or so projects so far, and there's normally one going on that I have to talk myself out of, just for the sake of the pocketbook. The big one we've supported so far was the Veronica Mars movie. Cathy and I are huge fans of the first two seasons of the show (we just pretended the third season didn't happen), so when there was an opportunity to support doing a movie...we were all over that one.

But one of the big lures for me have been some of my favourite comic book creators deciding to give Kickstater a try. So when Brian Q. Miller (writer of a beloved run of Batgirl) decided to launch a creator own series called Earthbound on Kickstarter, well, I'll give that a try. I like giving money directly to artists I like.

And then, well, Greg Rucka (dozens of superb books) launched Lady Sabre, well, that was another one. Then Amy Reeder came out with Rocket Girl, which looks like entirely too much fun, so clearly I needed to get that.

So yes, I have issues. This is not a news flash.

For most people I suspect these are probably not things that would lure your attention, although I think they're all excellent books (I'm past due for another graphic novel review post. Maybe later this week). But if you're Canadian, I'm going to point you in the direction of a Kickstarter worth taking a glance at. It's not only comic book based, but also Canadian and historical. So it's a solid trifecta.

This Kickstarter is for Nelvana of the Northern Lights. She was Canada's first superheroine and the story behind her creation and what happened to her is seriously fascinating. I mean, I knew of her existence, but not much more than that. I didn't realize, for example, that she was created in part because US comic books were banned in Canada during World War II, but that there was still a demand to read comic book stories. I also would have sworn there would have been a collection of some of kind of her comics already out there, but I would be wrong.

I could go on at length about this, but there are already two really good interview with the women spearheading the project to collect all of Nelvana's into one book. The more mainstream one came out last week in The Star. Go here to read it, assuming their firewall doesn't drive you nuts. You can also go to Sue's Tumblr called DC Women Kicking Ass and read her interview here.

As it stands, they've already made enough money to get the book made. They're into Stretch Goals now (If they hit certain goals, they offer up more items to go along with the book). And there are a few cool other things you can get, like posters, a calendar, original artwork, etc.

However, I guess due diligence requires me to tell you that if you are interested that this book does collect comics from the 1940s. They were a much different beast back then. I remember when I was younger picking up a copy of Batman Archives which collected the first couple of years of Batman comics from the late 30s and early 40s. I figured it would be something like the Marvel books of the 1960s. But no, it's not. It's a much more...raw and almost primitive version of the comics you will find today. It's not for everyone.

Still, I think what Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey is wonderful. It's an act of historical preservation, in a way. And I think people in Nunavut would find it interesting and worth taking a look at.

I also love the idea of updating the character and relaunching her. I hope one this Kickstarter is over they find the interest in an update. I suspect that'll be another Kickstarter I'll be interested in supporting.

Last Five
1. Let it be - The Beatles
2. Everybody's trying to be my baby - The Beatles
3. Knuckles - The Long Distance Runners
4. Bohemian like you - The Dandy Warhols
5. Back to the start - Lily Allen*

Thursday, October 03, 2013

I like to argue that I’ve gotten older, but not necessarily grown up. I think there’s ample proof of that if you walked into my geek den/man cave and saw a wall filled with comic book art, another with book cases filled with graphic novels and, the most recent addition, a quilt. Not any quilt, though; a quilt of Star Wars alphabet featuring artwork by a favourite of mine, Katie Cook.

No, I’m not kidding.

It’s not entirely true, however, the whole “I haven’t grown up that much” thing. I have moments where that hits home for me. Yesterday was one of them.

I had an…incident. I’m not going to go into the details, but let’s just say it happened and….it’s been awhile since I’ve been that mad. Understand, I’m not a get mad kind of guy. I get ranty occasionally, but seething rage, not so much. But earlier the week….I was that mad I could actually taste it. I assume in was adrenaline or something causing the reaction, but I could taste the hate I had going. It felt like it had been liquefied and was running through my veins. When I got back to my office I was physically vibrating to the point co-workers asked if I was all right.

Cathy, god love her, after saying a few consoling words, wisely gave me my space for a few hours. I went to the gym, worked out for about 90 minutes, burned out most of the hate, went back home and was fine. But man, that was an interesting few hours there.

So how is that a grown-up thing? Because my reaction 20 years or so ago would have been much different. When I was with the Muse at MUN, I was a source of amusement for my friends and the staff. I was very bitter, angry and ranty. In my prime, I could probably have given Rick Mercer a run for his money. It didn’t normally take much to set me off. A bloody student council meeting could get me going. The provincial government doing something stupid could get me going.

And once I got going, it was a thing then. I could stretch it out over days or weeks or longer (still not fond of a former MUN president for a number of reasons, so I guess you could argue decades, although it’s cooled from sincere and deep loathing to mild contempt at this point). If you had personally slighted me or someone I care about, then I would make your life miserable. I had the ability to be a particularly cutting bastard. If it was an organization I could write stuff that would make eyeballs bleed. My heroes were Hunter S. Thompson and V from the graphic novel V for Vendetta, just to give you an idea.

I considered this a good thing. My friends would laugh at my rants, which only encouraged me. I thought most of my best creative writing came out of being a proper bastard and ripping people and organizations in print. I actually won awards for it when I was a reporter with The Packet. I like to think I was a pretty good columnist back in the day. I was a bastard, but a bastard with a cause, which was all right in my mind.

Here’s the thing though. I don’t think you can do that forever. Well, you can, probably. I just don’t think you become a very nice person to be around as you get older. You burn so much energy with anger, hate and grudges that it becomes who you are. You have almost nothing else left for anything else. The people who were your friends when you were 22 are much less likely to find it amusing and charming at 42 (although Cathy tells me that some of them have said to her, privately, they do occasionally miss the snarky bastard version of me. I'm...touch?).

So that’s how I’ve grown up, I guess. I like to think I’m much calmer. My fuse is much slower to burn. Cathy gets deserves most of the credit for that. Maybe it makes me less entertaining, but I think it makes me a better person. But yesterday, oh yesterday for a few hours the 22-year-old version of myself was back. Oh yes. There would be fiery vengeance, my friends. I had creative uses for my new walking stick that involved bodily orifices, lighter fluid and matches planned out. I indulged in fantasies where I got to tell certain people, in graphic detail, exactly what I thought of them in ways that would have made their eyes bleed. It’s not that I was ready to burn bridges, you understand, for about three hours yesterday I was ready to burn cities, I was that mad.

It’s been awhile since I was like that. I concluded I didn’t like it. Didn’t like who it was turning me into. So after my workout, I drove home. Sat in the car before I went into the house. My iPod, which I am convinced is sentient, started playing the live version of Springsteen’s "Promised Land" which is one of my favourite songs. Took a deep breath. Realized it was in the past and that there are more important things to deal with. Got over it. Time to move on.

I guess that’s what you do when you’re a grown up. Probably less entertaining, but better for you in the long run.

Last Five
1. Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen
2. You don't see me - Keane*
3. What if I can't see the stars, Mildred? - Matthew Good
4. Can't walk away - The Monday Nights
5. Living the dream - Sloan

Saturday, September 28, 2013

When you only have so many lifelines out of the north, when one of those goes through a major disruption people get very surly, very fast.

For example, about two years ago the satellite that provides most of the communications for Nunavut went down. It was very much like Nunavut got thrown back 50 year just like that. Internet, phones, television, banking….all were rendered useless. Hell, the airport went down for a day or so. People were deeply freaking out. It’s one of the reasons why there’s such a push for a fibre optic cable for Nunavut. Yes, it could still break, but at least it gives the territory more than one communications option than a finicky satellite.

The latest disruption is coming from Canada Post. Understand, the people of Nunavut and Canada Post have always had a…touchy relationship. There’s the belief, not exactly unjustified, that we pay way too much for a massively inferior postal service. This tends to ebb and flow, with the high points coming right before Christmas, when people are freaking out waiting for their gifts to arrive.

However, Canada Post is managing the rare trick of really pissing off people in Nunavut during one of the down seasons. The service to the north since about mid-summer has been awful. It’s taking weeks for things to get here. And what with the advent of online tracking, it’s no problem for people here to spot where the problem is – Montreal.

Seriously, depending on where it’s sent from, your package will normally make a speedy trip across the country, or around the world in some cases, hit Montreal and then stop. My favourite one for me personally was when I ordered some toys from China this summer. They made it from Hong Kong to Montreal faster than Montreal to Iqaluit. And not by a small margin either.

My Twitter feed is being lit up, daily, by people losing their minds wondering why one of their packages has been sitting in Montreal for weeks. And it is Montreal. One of the nice things about a small town is you generally have an idea of what’s going on. And let’s just say the local post office is quietly letting it be known that it’s not their fault there are so many delays. Not that it's always helpful to them. I understand there was a racket at the post office on Friday. A combination of a long line (about 15 people or so), only one person on the counter, and lack of mail caused some people to start yelling at staff. So things are reaching a boiling point.

There are some days you can tell that Montreal apparently decided to free up a bunch of Amazon orders because every second person is coming out of the post office with one of their boxes.

Now, there’s speculation that this drug bust might have slowed things down. The usual geniuses involved in the local dope trade were receiving ExpressPost envelopes filled with dope from dealers in Montreal. From my brief time working with the local Canada Post, I kid you not when I say we’re not dealing with rocket scientists. You could smell some of these bags from 20 feet away. Some were doing nothing to try and disguise the smell.

It’s times like this when I’m against legalization simply because I want an easy way to locate and remove the terminally stupid from society. This seems like a fairly easy method of doing so.

With this drug bust everyone is hoping the logjam breaks up and people can finally start getting their mail at the slow crawl we’ve all come to expect, as opposed to Canada Post basically forsaking us. I really hope so because when people don’t get their mail, man, tempers and nerves get frayed quickly. If it’s taking a month for an ExpressPost package to make it here during a slow season, I’m going to have to start ordering Cathy’s Christmas gifts three weeks ago in the hopes they might make it in time.

Look, I know Canada Post has bigger worries going on, what with them on pace to lose hundreds of millions this year. But their service in the north is an ongoing thing. There seems to be a real disconnect between Montreal and Iqaluit and it’s something that needs to be addressed. If the regional manager (who is often based down south) can’t do something about it, then perhaps it’s time for Canada Post’s president to make a trip to the north so he can understand what a vital lifeline the mail is for people and what these disruptions in service mean to people. It genuinely does weird things to people’s mental health. It can impact the economy. They need to explain why it takes weeks for packages to get from Montreal to Iqaluit and what they’re going to improve it.

There’s an election in Nunavut right now. I wonder if a clever candidate will make that an election issue…